Research has shown up to a third of couples struggle to conceive - so what can people do to increase their fertility?

Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston gives her advice on the best foods to help to make you fertile.

1. Eat organic - We don't yet know what the impact may be of untested combinations of pesticides and food additives on fertility.

2. Go up-to-8-a-day - Five handfuls of veg and three pieces of fruit a day in a variety of colors such as red, purple, orange and dark green help to top up antioxidant levels which may help protect the genetic material in the egg and sperm.

3. Phytoestrogens for hormone balance - These plant-based hormone balancers help to prevent imbalances between estrogen and progesterone which may lead to fertility problems and early miscarriage.

4. Cut out the fertility hinderers - Two of the most important things to remove from your diet are alcohol and caffeine.

5. Get prepared - It's also a good idea to reduce the foods and drinks you can't eat during pregnancy before you fall pregnant so you are fully prepared and don't need to worry if you had something early on which is better avoided.

6. Essential fats - These fats support male and female fertility and hormonal balance and also help the baby's brain, nervous system and eyes to develop once pregnant.

7. Algae - Algae is a true super-food as it contains a vast array of nutrients, essential fats and amino acids in a totally natural and easy to absorb form.

Like many of her peers, she'd chosen to first focus on her career and then on children. The Hermitage, Tenn., woman had already suffered a pregnancy loss. But four days before moving from New York to Nashville to join her husband, she found herself pregnant.

At the age of 42, she gave birth to little Madeline.

You have a rich life tapestry to wrap around your child, says Walker, now 45. I love that I'm an older mom. I wasn't ready before; I wasn't the person I wanted to be to be a mother. I am now.

This is the age of the older mom. But fertility favors the young, raising the question of, biologically, how old is too old to have a baby. When a woman reaches her late 30s and her 40s, the possibility of conceiving naturally -- or conceiving at all -- is a door slowly swinging shut. Plus, there are higher risks of pregnancy loss and genetic issues that accompany pregnancy at an older age.

Beyond that, there are ramifications to consider, such as simultaneously funding college tuition and retirement. But many women feel there are inherent rewards in waiting those extra years.

Many women in their 40s have had a chance to figure out who they are, says Dr. Cornelia Graves, medical director of Baptist Hospital's perinatal and obstetrics program in Nashville. That's really important because when you're in your 20s, sometimes you have children because it's the expected thing to do. Whereas women in their 40s, this is what they've elected to do.

The risks of conceiving

Fertility drops off sharply in a woman's late 30s. But women can still conceive naturally up until around age 50, Graves says.

But biologically, the best time for having a baby is between the ages of 22 and 32, she says.

If you're trying to get pregnant in your late 30s or early 40s, the literature says you should try for a year before seeking help, Graves says. I say three to six months because your time is much more limited.

A woman's fertility is highest and the possibility of complications lower, earlier on. Women are born with a finite number of eggs. Not only do those eggs wane in number as a woman ages, but they've weathered more. When you're 40, your eggs are 40. That's why the possibility of genetic irregularities such as Down syndrome, a chromosomal disorder, grows as a woman gets older.

Fertility starts to slide in a woman's 30s, says Dr. Gloria Richard-Davis, chairwoman of obstetrics and gynecology at Meharry Medical College in Nashville. By age 40, the decline becomes even more drastic.

Obviously, that's not realistic for many women and the type of lifestyle we have now, Richard-Davis adds.Women are getting married later and having children later. It doesn't mean if you're over 40, you can't get pregnant, but the probability dramatically declines.
However, Hollywood has provided some recent examples of older moms.

Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry had her daughter in March at age 41. Nicole Kidman, who's 40 and married to country music singer Keith Urban, is expecting her first biological child in July. (Kidman has two adopted children with former husband Tom Cruise.)

Why women wait

Age-related infertility is increasingly more common. One in five women wait until they're older than 35 to start their families, reports the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

ASRM attributes the trend to several factors: the availability of contraception and the high divorce rate, coupled with more women in the workforce, women marrying at an older age and married couples waiting to be financially secure before starting their families. Add to this mix that many women simply just don't realize fertility begins to wane in their late 20s.

Then there are the added complications of raising a child at a later age.

Vikki Adkins of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., got married at age 33. She had her first child when she was 39 and her second at 41. Adkins considers herself a high-energy person, but keeping up with a 6-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy can still be tough.

She worries about the future, funding her children's college educations and her own retirement. Not to mention adolescence and menopause will probably make concurrent appearances.

I am 48 now and lucky I have my children, Adkins says, but I think it is harder than when you are in your 20s and early 30s.

Not that there aren't advantages, too, to have children later in life. Many moms feel their age is an asset, giving them patience they lacked before. Medical professionals also notice the difference.

I think you've kind of learned to roll with the punches of life, so you don't fixate on every little thing, says Baptist's Graves.

Being fertile and fruitful can mean giving birth to a child -- but to have a fertile soul means to give birth to the true self a woman wants to be: to live a life filled with passion, strength, joy, and adventure.

In The Way of the Fertile Soul, Dr. Randine Lewis outlines ten ancient Chinese medical and Taoist secrets that hold the little-known key to successfully conceiving babies, new dreams, and fulfilling life for women at any phase in their lives.

The Way of the Fertile Soul encourages women to strive toward health, abundance, and a fruitful, joyous approach to life.

By using diagnostic questionnaires, qigong exercises, and guided meditations to help the reader understand how the elements of nature express themselves in her body, mind, and spirit, The Way of the Fertile Soul provides the tools to greatly increase a woman's chance of conceiving, identify imbalances, reduce stress, increase energy, and uncover her intrinsic creativity and express it fully.

Garden Acupuncture in Park Slope, Brooklyn has been creating and producing informational videos over the past year explaining Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

The latest of the videos explains the importance of women keeping track of their Basal Body Temperature, BBT, throughout their menstrual cycle. This is paramount information for individuals trying to conceive because it shows their most fertile days of the month.

Information learned from a basal body temperature chart:
1. When ovulation occurs.
2. The most fertile days of the month.
3. Length of the two phases of the cycle.
4. Possible irregularities.
5. If acupuncture, herbal therapy or another form of intervention could be beneficial.

In the video, Alexander Goldberg LAc, Dipl OM, a fertility specialist, gives an easy description of how to take your temperature to get accurate results. This resting body temperature is an indication of hormone levels and processes that are occurring in the body. So, keeping track of this will give provide a clear picture of your fertility health.

Dr. Goldberg has studied directly under Dr. Randine Lews, Ph.D. author of The Infertility Cure, and The Way of the Fertile Soul. Dr. Lewis is a well-recognized authority in the field of fertility medicine and Alex is the only practitioner in Brooklyn, NY who has the esteemed privilege to study with her.

Garden Acupuncture is a family-run, small business in the heart of Park Slope. They pride themselves on individualized, affordable treatments and are committed to offering the best holistic care to the local community.

Being fertile and fruitful can mean giving birth to a child -- but to have a fertile soul means to give birth to the true self a woman wants to be: to live a life filled with passion, strength, joy, and adventure.

In The Way of the Fertile Soul, Dr. Randine Lewis outlines ten ancient Chinese medical and Taoist secrets that hold the little-known key to successfully conceiving babies, new dreams, and fulfilling life for women at any phase in their lives.

The Way of the Fertile Soul encourages women to strive toward health, abundance, and a fruitful, joyous approach to life.

By using diagnostic questionnaires, qigong exercises, and guided meditations to help the reader understand how the elements of nature express themselves in her body, mind, and spirit, The Way of the Fertile Soul provides the tools to greatly increase a woman's chance of conceiving, identify imbalances, reduce stress, increase energy, and uncover her intrinsic creativity and express it fully.

Menopause is the time in a woman's life when her reproductive system shuts down and her reproducing days are over... or are they? For some women, pregnancy is still a concern during menopause.

How is this possible? There may be more than one factor that plays a role in the possibility. For this reason, the best way to understand how pregnancy can occur during menopause is to understand what happens to a woman's body during this change of life.

For starters, menopause occurs when a woman has gone 12 consecutive months without a period cycle. The lack of menses is a sign that estrogen and progesterone production has stopped. The ceasing of these hormones means that the ovaries will no longer produce eggs.

However, sometimes, even though a woman is menopausal, she may still produce enough estrogen for an egg to be implanted within the uterus lining.

The reason why hormone production can still occur is due to the fact that menopause is not characterized by a single event. It is better described as a process that takes place over a few years.

Therefore, it is not unheard of for a woman to have fluctuating hormones for as many as five years after she becomes menopausal. At any time during this five year period when hormones are unpredictable, it's possible for a woman to become pregnant during menopause.

Thus, if there is no other reason why a woman cannot become pregnant (I.E. previous hysterectomy or medical condition), she may want to consider talking to her doctor about birth control during menopause if pregnancy is a concern.

Women cannot become pregnant naturally when they are post-menopausal (after they have completed menopause). This is because they no longer produce the hormones that are required for menses to take place.

Women who believe they have become pregnant after menopause actually became pregnant during menopause because it is not possible to become pregnant without medical intervention after menopause. It is simply impossible because pregnancy can only occur if estrogen and progesterone are being produced.

Women who have experienced early menopause (usually before the age of 45) and who had difficulty becoming pregnant or wished to start a family later on in life, can still become pregnant with hormone therapy during menopause and through an egg donation procedure after menopause.

However, it is important for women who are of older reproducing age (I.E. 35 and up) to understand that there are certain risks involved in becoming pregnant.

Women who become pregnant during menopause are at a greater risk for pregnancy loss, infection, hemorrhaging, embolisms, gastrointestinal diabetes and developing hypertension disorders. In addition, strokes, seizures, and eclampsia are also risk factors for older pregnant women.

Furthermore, medical research has discovered that 40-year-old women put themselves at high risk of developing these health conditions if they become pregnant, and the risk grows even higher with each passing year after 40.

As you can see, although it is rare for a woman to become pregnant during menopause, it is plausible. That being said, pregnant menopausal women need to be kept under the watchful eye of their doctor to protect the health of the expectant mother and the heath of her unborn fetus.

Keep in mind that while a woman can become pregnant during menopause this is a rare occurrence. Therefore, despite what you may read in magazine articles or online if you have concerns about becoming pregnant, or suspect that you are pregnant, the best person to speak with for advice is your doctor or gynecologist.

About the Author: By Kathryn Whittaker.Sign up for a free newsletter and discover how to banish unpleasant menopause symptoms fast.

Dr. Lewis presents a groundbreaking alternative approach to infertility, explaining how she used traditional Chinese medicine to treat her own infertility, successfully conceiving and giving birth to two children.

In Lewis's experience, women who have undergone three to six months of the dietary changes, herbs and acupuncture treatments become pregnant with no further effort.

Lewis intersperses her somewhat technical examination of the program with anecdotes about her patients, weaving in discussions on diet, herbal supplements, acupuncture, older women and problems related to infertility.

It is widely known some anti-depressants can affect sexual functioning in men and women. A study has found men taking paroxetine—brand names Seroxat and Paxil — can experience impaired fertility and sperm damage, says the Chicago Tribune.

The New York research revealed nearly half of the [men] taking Seroxat and Paxil tested with increased levels of sperm fragmentation, said the Chicago Tribune, which added the study appears online today in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

It's fairly well known SSRI anti-depressants negatively impact erectile function and ejaculation. This study goes one step further, demonstrating they can cause a major increase in genetic damage to sperm, said Dr. Peter Schlegel, the study's senior author and professor of reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, quoted the Chicago Tribune.

-- A breakthrough revolutionary plan for getting pregnant fast, solving common fertility problems and having a healthy baby – this is NOT your average book on getting pregnant!

Renowned fertility expert Dr. Niels Lauersen and women's wellness expert Colette Bouchez help readers take charge of their fertility with a revolutionary new self-help plan designed to show couples how to work together to boost their conception odds, plan for a healthy pregnancy, and get pregnant faster – all without the use of expensive fertility treatments or medications.

Based on scientific research and tested on thousands of couples Eat-Love- GET PREGNANT is a simple yet revolutionary plan that provides the quintessential missing link absent from most other fertility programs – namely, the importance of not only boosting both male and female fertility simultaneously, but bold new evidence showing how, when couples work together in certain special and unique ways, they can create a unified fertility power boost strong enough to take them from infertile to fertile in as little as three months.

A research team supervised by Universite Laval scientist Marc-Andre Sirard has identified genetic markers that allow the selection of eggs with the best chance of leading to successful pregnancy after in vitro fertilization (IVF).

This finding could both increase the success rate of single embryo transfer and diminish the risk of multiple pregnancies.

The details of the method developed by the researchers, for which an international patent application has been filed, are explained on the website of the scientific journal Human Reproduction.

Eggs recovered in the course of the IVF process are surrounded by follicular cells removed before the actual fertilization procedure begins. While in the ovaries, these cells and the eggs are in very close interaction, explains Sirard.

A first experiment we conducted on bovine follicular cells led us to believe these cells might possess specific markers that would be able to give us information about the quality of an egg.

With the help of 40 women recruited in a fertility clinic, researchers compared follicular cells surrounding eggs ultimately led to successful pregnancies - i.e. good eggs - to cells surrounding ovules which did not result in pregnancy.

This comparison led to the identification of five genes expressed more abundantly in follicular cells surrounding good eggs.

Currently, the way to assess which embryos are to be transferred into a woman's uterus is based on visible criteria such as appearance and division rate.

At least 30% of embryos that look normal through visual examination nonetheless show chromosome abnormalities, explains Professor Sirard, illustrating the limits of this type of assessment.

The method developed by Sirard's team makes it possible to objectively select ovules which have the best chance of success without altering the integrity of the embryos.

This new genomic tool could also solve an ethical problem confronting both fertility clinic doctors and the people who consult them: In order to increase the chances of pregnancy, many embryos are implanted simultaneously into the woman in the hope that at least one will survive.

This procedure along with improved IVF techniques has led to an increase in multiple pregnancies.

Even if doctors now tend to transfer fewer embryos, multiple pregnancies still occur in 30% of couples who resort to IVF in North America and 23% in European couples.

By selecting the embryo with the best potential, it would be possible to limit the number of embryos transferred, and thus the number of multiple pregnancies, while maintaining good success rates, concludes Marc-André Sirard.

-- Victoria Hopewell was a forty-something divorced clinical psychologist when she met and married a longtime bachelor whose ninety-year-old parents were anxiously waiting for a grandchild.

The problem was, even though Victoria had two young daughters from a previous marriage, her intense desire to create a baby with her new husband was thwarted by her own body.

Her eggs were aging faster than her healthy hormones and youthful appearance would suppose.

Desperate to bear a child, willing to undergo every procedure from Lupron shots through egg harvesting and in vitro fertilization (IVF), she is blocked at every corner of medical protocol from achieving her dream of a successful pregnancy.

Finally, she journeys toward acceptance of using a donor egg, much to the dismay of her growing daughters.

But no eggs are available, and she is placed on a lengthy hospital wait-list. Victoria and her husband then embark on a surrealistic egg hunt to find their own donor.

Follow her insider's account of the hidden world of egg donation-where women's eggs are bought and sold over the internet and a beautiful model with high SATs and a prior successful donation commands the highest prices.

This smoothie is rich in B vitamins, zinc and essential fatty acids to support a healthy hormone balance; antioxidants to help protect sperm and eggs; and vitamin E, which can reduce miscarriage risk and aid sperm production.

-- A breakthrough revolutionary plan for getting pregnant fast, solving common fertility problems and having a healthy baby – this is NOT your average book on getting pregnant!

Renowned fertility expert Dr. Niels Lauersen and women's wellness expert Colette Bouchez help readers take charge of their fertility with a revolutionary new self-help plan designed to show couples how to work together to boost their conception odds, plan for a healthy pregnancy, and get pregnant faster – all without the use of expensive fertility treatments or medications.

Based on scientific research and tested on thousands of couples Eat-Love- GET PREGNANT is a simple yet revolutionary plan that provides the quintessential missing link absent from most other fertility programs – namely, the importance of not only boosting both male and female fertility simultaneously, but bold new evidence showing how, when couples work together in certain special and unique ways, they can create a unified fertility power boost strong enough to take them from infertile to fertile in as little as three months.

The most productive group, surprisingly, was the women aged 30-34: they had 185,300 babies.

By the time women reached 40-44 years old, they produced 13,600 specimens, and at 45-plus, 635 gave birth.

In fact, nearly 300,000 women over 30 had babies, a cheering thought, until you think of the nappies.

But the figures leave much in the dark. How many 40-plus women are still trying, how many are still using contraceptives, how many are already infertile?

Looking back can cast some light. In 1938, the number of women having babies in the 30-34 age group was actually smaller than today, even though the birth rate was roughly the same.

Madonna and Cherie wouldn't have even made a paragraph then when 25,000 women in the 40-44 age group gave birth - almost double current levels - and 2,200 babies were born to women over 45. That's almost four times as many as now.

Clearly, choice, as well as biology, plays an important part - the really sharp decline in the birth rate for 35-plus women came in the 1970s, when it halved, coinciding with easier access to the Pill and abortion.

So, by when should you have your fertility tested? Unfortunately, exactly at what rate fertility declines is impossible to say. Nobody has measured the number of women trying to get pregnant at 40, say, and studied how successful they are.

To state, as one Sunday broadsheet report of the American campaign did, that the rate of conception drops to a mere 2% at 40 is very bleak and misleading.

No one can deny that you may have to wait longer to get pregnant once you are in your mid- to late-thirties, or that you may fail.

As someone who did have a baby at the drop of a hat at 40, and another, albeit after three miscarriages, at 46 years old, my advice is this: next time you see a shock-horror headline about older mothers, just turn the page.

-- Victoria Hopewell was a forty-something divorced clinical psychologist when she met and married a longtime bachelor whose ninety-year-old parents were anxiously waiting for a grandchild.

The problem was, even though Victoria had two young daughters from a previous marriage, her intense desire to create a baby with her new husband was thwarted by her own body.

Her eggs were aging faster than her healthy hormones and youthful appearance would suppose.

Desperate to bear a child, willing to undergo every procedure from Lupron shots through egg harvesting and in vitro fertilization (IVF), she is blocked at every corner of medical protocol from achieving her dream of a successful pregnancy.

Finally, she journeys toward acceptance of using a donor egg, much to the dismay of her growing daughters.

But no eggs are available, and she is placed on a lengthy hospital wait-list. Victoria and her husband then embark on a surrealistic egg hunt to find their own donor.

Follow her insider's account of the hidden world of egg donation-where women's eggs are bought and sold over the internet and a beautiful model with high SATs and a prior successful donation commands the highest prices.

The decision to get pregnant and to expand your family is an exciting moment of your life.

Once you have decided to have a child enter your life, the next steps are to make sure we do everything possible to get pregnant by natural means if possible.

There are a variety of ways to get pregnant easily by changing your lifestyle today. To live a healthier life, you are more likely to enjoy these ways to get pregnant and have a healthy body for your baby’s future!

Look for changes in lifestyle that can help you get pregnant more easily in the future.

If you have recently discovered that you are already pregnant, it is possible to adopt these changes and reap success. It is never too late to be healthy for your child!

Most of these recommendations are based on traditional wisdom coupled with the statistics. Some mothers and babies do not follow all these tips of a great lifestyle, but it is always better to be safe when you are responsible for the life of another human being.

Some of the best ways to get pregnant through a healthy lifestyle are the following:

What to Eat? Whatever goes into your body will go into the body of your child as well. This fact alone should make you rethink some of your choices. Prefer to eat "junk food" rather than a balanced diet? You need to reconsider some of your food choices every day so that your child is getting all the nutrients and vitamins that he or she needs now.

There are a number of foods to avoid during pregnancy. Some of these foods are considered at risk even if you were not pregnant, but with the increased risk of carrying a child, some of these foods should be avoided at the risk of complications or problems. Some examples are fish high in mercury, soft cheeses and sushi.

Are you in shape? Carrying a baby takes a lot of work. It is logical therefore that the more normal your body weight and strength were prior to pregnancy, the better you will be while carrying your child. It takes a lot of strength to make your job easier.

Furthermore, strong abdominal muscles and good fitness will help you throughout the nine months and when the work begins at last during childbirth. Try to maintain a level of physical activity throughout pregnancy if you have consistently worked out before you conceived. Never push yourself and always follow your doctors orders

Taking drugs, alcohol or smoking? You know excessive drinking of alcohol is not healthy for you, so participating in these activities, while your baby is sharing your blood does not make much sense. Both legal and recreational drugs can also affect the growth of your child.

Consult your doctor to ensure that medicines that are prescribed may not affect your baby. Avoid smoking and alcohol to give your child the best chance of being born healthy and strong.

Heard of folic acid? Even before pregnancy, doctors prescribe folic acid as one of the ways to get pregnant safely. Most doctors recommend folic acid supplements for pregnant women, because women do not get enough in their daily diet.

Folic acid is important to take well before you actually get pregnant, so you should start taking at least a month before trying. What it does is help prevent certain neural tube birth defects such as Spina Bifida.

By following a smart and healthy lifestyle, you will be doing your best to contribute to a healthy conception and pregnancy. For much more comprehensive guidance to maximize the odds of getting pregnant, check outTaking Charge of Your Fertility, The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health.

-- For any woman unhappy with her current method of birth control; demoralized by her quest to have a baby; or experiencing confusing symptoms in her cycle, this book provides answers to all these questions, plus amazing insights into a woman's body.

Weschler thoroughly explains the empowering Fertility Awareness Method, which in only a couple minutes a day allows a woman to:
• Enjoy highly effective, scientifically proven birth control without chemicals or devices
• Maximize her chances of conception or expedite fertility treatment by identifying impediments to conception
• Increase the likelihood of choosing the gender of her baby
• Gain control of her sexual and gynecological health

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